As much as 100 gallons of diesel and gasoline were released last Wednesday evening from fuel tanks at Lake Barkley Marina.

Larry J. Tichenor, environmental inspector for the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection, said that’s a “very rough estimate,” and that the spill/leak happened because the tanks were underwater on account of the previous weekend’s heavy rains.

“The flood had come over the tank, and there was some gasoline and some diesel fuel that leaked,” Trigg County Sheriff Ray Burnam said on Thursday morning. “We think we have it contained with minimal amounts of fuel going out.”

However, Tichenor went on to say that the spill was contained with the help of absorbent booms. Burnam said the booms were put around the receptacles from which the fuel was leaking.

Tichenor couldn’t comment on the amount of damage caused because of the flooding, and marina representatives did not want to comment on the record.

John Jordan, administrator for Lake Barkley State Resort Park, said that while tanks have been submerged by floodwater before, this was the first time he had heard of fuel leaking back out of a tank.

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